Ahhh, to be a bee, and feel the soft inside of a flower-
breathe in the heady scent and take the sweet honey home to my queen!
Late blooming Cosmos, with Bee!
©LaineQuinn2023
A walk on the beach.
Blue sky
Ocean
Sand
Nature stands by.
Peaceful
Beautiful
Sometimes thundering
And what are the humans doing?
Try to be nice!
It is the best way.
©2020 Laine Quinn, St. Augustine Beach, June.
Full Twist
Alternate leg stretch
©2020, Laine Quinn Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, St. Augustine Beach
We Are all Humans -
wonderfully diverse -
who emerged from the same continent.
The differences,
Asian, Indian, Eskimo, Indigenous,
so called Whites, Blacks -
are just labels - tags - meaningless.
All Human life on the planet emerged from the continent
People dispersed to all parts of the globe
over thousands and thousands and thousands of years,
adjusting to the different environments in diverse ways.
All of the continents on earth are connected
deep in the earth.
All peoples on earth are connected
deep in their hearts.
In a sense,
we are all African!
But truly,
All part of one Human family.
Photo Credit: NASA 1,000,000 miles from earth, Africa and Europe.
Yes, we are unfortunately in a time
when we must assert
loud and clear -
that
Black Lives Do Matter.
Yet all true spiritual and religious traditions
and scientific facts
proclaim for all to hear
that
We are all one
and
one with all.
Sure, we are all different colors -
but we are the same race.
In fact there is only the one race -
the human race.
All other differentiations are fairy tales -
Black families have taken a beating for hundreds of years
and it is time for all of us
to stand with all oppressed people and say -
NO MORE!
©Laine Quinn 2020 Mexican art photographed without giving credit to the artist, sorry.
Change is in the air.
Compassion and righteous anger are walking the streets of America with Lady Justice.
There will be no turning back these pages of history ourstory -
no matter what the impeached president says or does.
Change is in the air.
This isn't 2 dozen people with automatic weapons
standing on the capitol steps
protesting the lock down because of covid-19.
This is thousands and thousands of peaceful Americans
supporting one another and walking together
to protest the racial inequality that permeates our society.
Protesting militant police who murder innocent people for sport.
Change is in the air
and it's not going away.
Police are on notice.
States Attorneys are on notice.
We are watching now.
And we are many.
Change is in the air.
Stay vigilant.
Stay safe.
Stay together.
In 1953, Rachel Carson penned this...
"It is one of the ironies of our time that,
while concentrating on the defense of our country against enemies from without,
we should be so heedless of those who would destroy it from within."
Amen.
©Laine Quinn 2020
My, oh my! What more
Can I say; seeing lilies
On the peaceful walk?
Surprise lilies in the neighborhood!
©2020Laine Quinn
It's Sunday,
take the day off!
With all of the bad news and incompetence of our government,
and missing being close to our loved ones -
our hearts get heavy.
But that's because of the love in our hearts.
Love and compassion and empathy and sorrow.
So, take a break.
Forget the bad news and focus on the love -
the love inside your Big Heart.
Love is everywhere evident -
even in this pandemic.
Look inside,
past the confusion and pain,
to the love.
That love - your love, my love,
will see us through to the other side of this.
Trust that love.
Feel it.
St. Augustine Beach, Sunrise
©2018 Laine Quinn
The Earth is breathing a sigh of relief today,
the 50th anniversary of Earth Day,
because her brainy humans have shut down
the engines of pollution.
No, it can't go on like this - or can it?
(There was a reason that manufacturing left the USA,
besides cheap labor -
lax environmental controls.
Maybe the countries who host these pollutors
will realize what they have sacrificed.)
Happy Earth Day!
© 2020Laine Quinn, Angel Wing in the sky.
It's been over a month since I've been to the beach.
Emotions seem to be wrapped up in worry and uncertainty,
and I don't miss it in the usual way.
But I do miss it!
©Laine Quinn 2019 St. Augustine Beach, sunrise.
"The shore means many things to many people. Of its varied moods
the one usually considered typical is not so at all.
The true spirit does not reside in the gentle surf that laps
a sun drenched bathing beach on a summer day.
Instead, it is on a lonely shore at dawn or twilight,
or in storm or midnight darkness that we sense a mysterious something
that we recognize as the the reality of the sea.
For the ocean has nothing to do with humanity.
It is supremely unaware of man..."
And the ocean was there at the beginnings of life on earth,
spawning all that we know and recognize as our world,
over many many millions of years.
"Everything in that scene caused me to feel apart,
remembering that the relation of birds to the sea
is rooted in millions of years,
that man came but yesterday."
Rachel Carson, quoted from the book LOST WOODS The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, edited by Linda Lear.
Photos Credit, © Laine Quinn White Crest, Wellfleet Mass.
and Dark Sky, Herring Cove, Provincetown Mass.
and Black Skimmers, Vilano Beach, St. Augustine Fl.
(Sea gull wondering if it is safe to join the others...)
*"If social distancing needs to be extended long term,
scientists recommend forming an inner circle of uninfected friends and family
that you can rely on
to maintain social bonds..."
Some others call this a pod -
forming a pod of trusted friends and family.
But when can we do that?
When is it safe -
when the very best thing we can do is to isolate?
Listen to your heart...
when it feels okay,
then wait another week!
If it still feels okay,
take small steps.
Go slowly.
Be sure.
Trust your feelings.
*Quoted from a CNN article by Ryan Prior.
© 2020 Laine Quinn St. Augustine inlet with the Schooner, Freedom and a gaggle of gulls. Or should I say a pod?
I've lost my head!
Me too!
I can't think...
I feel like an April Fool!
Sorry!!
It might happen to you,
like it did to me -
when you're singing along to an old sad song
trying to hold it together -
that's when it might hit you -
or in the middle of nowhere
talking to your friend, husband or wife -
it might boil over the top
and then you're crying-
trying not to cry
because you are safe -
you are home.
But you cry because others aren't safe
or home -
but are in harm's way -
in the path of an invisible tsunami.
We must be safe.
We must take care of each other even from a distance.
And we must find ways to release the pressure valve from time to time
and cry if we can.
We are all in this together.
For the long haul.
We must be patient.
We must take good care.
We must.
We must.
For all of the people on the front lines risking it all to take care of us.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Laine
Waves on the Horizon, © Laine Quinn2019
Social distancing not required...
Cat (DJ) and Armadillo, the Moon and Venus, Two Butterflies, Cat (Lucy) kisses Gator, Two Web-footed friends, Five Turtles! All Safe.
Often I catch myself sitting with my hands folded,
like a good school girl at her desk.
As a child I always loved this painting of "Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer
Hands -
one hand washing the other -
like old friends.
Like how we help each other now -
keeping our distance, but checking in on friends and family.
Our hands,
are like good friends -
really good friends!
"Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer.
Necklace in Mexico, and Door Hand also! ©2017 Laine Quinn
Where beauty is -
there rests the soul.
Azaleas in full force in St. Augustine.
It is difficult to sit still for an invisible catastrophe -
there's no wind, no rain, no flooding -
in fact the weather here is perfect.
We have electricity, water, internet, the pantry is full,
and we have each other.
So, wash your hands, enjoy each other -
(they are singing from the balconies in Italy!)
get lots of fresh air
and be creative!
Don't panic.
Be kind.
and
Be careful.
Trumpet Flower, ©Laine Quinn 2007!
In her autobiography, Dust Tracks On A Road,
Zora Neale Hurston, with no disrespect to organized Religion,
states that-
"It is simply not for me...
The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn,
is glory enough for me."
Amen!
Photo, Crescent Beach, © Laine Quinn 2018, sunrise.
Ecola
I walked by the sea-creek side.
The wind laughed, the gulls cried.
Sweet water lapped on the salt sand
between the deep sea and the deep land.
Ursula K. LeGuin
Years ago, Joseph Campbell told us that the poets would save us.
I begin to understand.
From Ursula K LeGuin's book of poems, "Late in the Day."
Joseph Campbell, in his series, "The Power of Myth."
Photo of St. Augustine Beach, ©2020LaineQuinn
It might seem incredulous
that there were peaceful, cooperative, undefended cities in so called prehistory.
But go back as recently as 1492, when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic
in search of a route to China and India.
Luckily for him and his crew,
there was land in between,
and after nearly 3 months of sailing,
they landed in what he named Hispaniola, in the Bahamas.
*"The Indians," Columbus reported,
"are so naive and so free with their possessions
that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it.
When you ask for something they have, they never say no.
To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone."
How he and his men responded to these handsome, well built people
who carried no weapons,
is shameful and obscene.
And thus began the conquest of the Americas,
spreading the European model of power and tyranny like a disease.
We are the descendants of these warring people
who believed in a winner take all mentality.
We are also the descendants of the peaceful, generous people,
who loved nature and life.
We can set our sights on making more and more powerful and accurate weapons.
Or we can set our sights on technologies that support life
and can turn back the clock on certain environmental collapse.
Love will get us there and respect -
for each other and for the world we live in.
Let's let our better angels have their day once again.
*From Howard Zinn's, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492 - PRESENT.
"Our hopes for peaceful human coexistence are not,
as we are so often told, utopian dreams."
Riane Eisler
Peaceful cooperation existed long, long ago and set the foundation for civilization.
Human HISTORY OURSTORY goes back 30,000 years.
In most early societies technologies were developed
that supported and enhanced
the quality of life.
Otherwise what might have become of us?
These were cooperative societies,
with both men and women working together for the common good.
30,000 years of improving life for all.
Over millennia, these early societies developed farming,
fishing, the domestication of animals,
weaving, and even town planning.
The arts flourished.
As a result of that cooperative living,
10,000 years ago - thriving, complex city states were abundant in the fertile Mediterranean Basin.
Yes, these were "gynocentric, or woman-centered societies,
with the deity represented in female form,
symbolizing the generative, nurturing and creative powers of nature."
These peoples, our ancestors, lived close to nature and the stars
and had great respect for all life.
Was it a matriarchy? Not in the sense of being opposite to patriarchy.
These were egalitarian cultures that bestowed equal value on all citizens.
"A partnership society,
in which neither half of humanity is ranked over the other
and diversity is not equated with inferiority or superiority."
Everyone is King of the Hill!
(Queen, Princess, Prince and Spot!)
Of the Hill!
Quotes are from the amazing book, The Chalice and the Blade, Our History, Our Future, extensively researched and written by Riane Eisler in 1987.
The word obscene in Greek Tragedies meant that the action took place off scene,
behind the curtain, because it was too terrible to actually depict on stage.
I've gone back 100 years to shake up the past and improve our lives.
Going back farther one is confronted with obscene brutality.
Imperialism - the way of the world -
an arrogance and entitlement that justified horrible acts of murder,
slavery and abuse on all levels.
Anyone perceived as different, inferior, or threatening,
and women and children of all stripes were dispatched or used with impunity.
Four thousand years of that arrogance landed in the Americas.
Spanish, French and English fought fiercely for the rights of a land already occupied.
And finally, the newly minted Americans were the victors,
and ran over the continent and her people without conscience.
King of the Hill...
whoever gets to the top makes the rules and breaks the rules and changes the rules.
They tell the story, HISstory,
not OURstory.
We still live under this archaic model
of might makes right
and the person with the most gold is King.
But, it was not always this way.
There is an older way.
A Peaceful way.
Long, long ago...
More tomorrow...
Re-enactor, St. Augustine.
...It''s about my journey going from a liberal civil rights lawyer
who was tinkering with the machine,
and believed that we could somehow get the to the Promised Land
if we just filed the next best lawsuit,
or met the the governor,
or organize the right number of people for the next protest,
to someone who now believes that much more revolutionary change is required,
and it's not simply a political revolution.
A moral and spiritual revolution is also required of us now.
This is what is required of us to begin to treat each person decently,
with respect and love
and by extension,
the earth and all aboard her.
*(Author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness",
talking about her new book.)
Photo of Tropical Day Flower and Dragonfly, ©2013 Laine Quinn
Taken at Longwood Gardens, in Delaware.
So,
in my alternate universe...
There was no degradation of the earth.
Clean Air.
Clean Water.
No lies, no wars in the oil rich Middle East, no lives lost.
The U.S. military would be doing what it is charged with-
protecting Democracy,
not dismantling it worldwide.
Cancer would still be a rare disease,
not the Big Business that it is today.
Our Government by the people, and for the people would stand by the people,
and not the greedy aggressive corporations that have given us this dystopia.
Family Farms would have been protected,
and the Giant Agri-Business would never have been allowed.
Our food would be wholesome and delicious-
the soil rich in nutrients-
bees would thrive.
And the peacemakers never would have been assassinated,
and they would have led the way to peace and prosperity for all people.
"You might say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one."
John Lennon
©2020 Laine Quinn, Earth Flag, Home!
John Lennon Quote from the song "Imagine"
There is an interview with the Four Women of "The Squad" on Democracy Now.
After reading the transcript of these four diverse women,
at a time when I was getting very disheartened about the state of the country and the world,
I found HOPE!
They are, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York,
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts,
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
and
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
These women are on the front lines and they are passionate and positive
and Hopeful!
So, whatever you do, don't lose Hope.
Hope will get us through.
Love and compassion
and passion for the things we love -
will get us through.
©2020 Laine Quinn, Wild Waves
While burning a few things on the deck in the chiminnea,
I noticed these caterpillars munching away on the Butterfly Weed.
It was over a month ago. There were about 10 or 12 of them, and they decimated that plant.
Then yesterday,
while leaning over the rail to reach a hanging pot I spied this little one in the same area.
She is no bigger than the joint of my thumb.
Will she emerge from her cocoon?
We will have to wait and see.
I brought her indoors, as the temperature was dropping.
There is so much hidden in plain sight that we never even notice.
It was chance that led me to the caterpillars and the butterfly.
Look at the little bugs on the left.
I didn't even see them until I blew the photo up!
Garden Joy! February in Florida, annuals to plant!
©2020 Laine Quinn
Imagine that over 100 years of air pollution from cars and trucks
never happened.
That the arduous task of extracting oil from the earth was abandoned.
When Henry Ford was building cars,
he experimented with bio-fuels,
namely Hemp, the versatile plant that matured in a single season
and grew in every state in the Union.
Unfortunately Ford Motor Company was subsidized by Standard Oil,
John D. Rockefeller's cash cow and defiler of the earth and air.
Hemp not only threatened oil production,
but could easily have replaced cotton
and the cotton industry was having nothing to do with that.
Same with Paper.
And Pharmaceuticals?
Forget it.
Hemp,
quick - renewable-
inexpensive
abundant,
and in those times of monopolized industries,
Banned.
The Titans of Industry and Wall Street have given us the world we live in.
The environment is decimated and we have endless profitable wars,
killing off the regular folks who just want to live a good life.
And now we have to fight a Sisyphaen battle to reclaim our right to breathe,
to be healthy,
to live to see our children's children.
One step at a time.
Researching information about Henry Ford unearthed some dark facts. To see the link above click on his name.
How long has this been going on?
Tsk, Tsk......
HELP!
What if, when chemical companies came up with the idea
to spray food crops with the deadly compounds
that were developed in wartime,
someone very important had said,
"This is a really bad idea."
OR
What if, 20 or 30 years later, when a bright caring poet/scientist
saw the effects of these deadly poisons first hand
and sounded the alarm, that birds were dying, bees and butterflies too.
And the chemical big wigs had said,
"Oh my, this is not what we had intended.
We can do better than this."
If either one of those things had happened,
we would have vegetables and fruits
that actually tasted like something, instead of tasting like nothing.
And the bees and butterflies wouldn't be on the edge of extinction.
The Earth would be healthier and her people and their children.
Silent Spring was published in 1962, by Rachel Carson who died of breast cancer 2 years later, in 1964.
"Though much is taken, much remains and much returns." John Elder quoting Wordsworth with an addition, in Courage for the Earth, Celebrating the life and writings of Rachel Carson.
Things we can do...feed the birds, and plant flowers that attract bees and butterflies and grow our own veggies!!!! And buy organic when we can afford to.
When you bought groceries in the '50's and early 60's,
they were packed in sturdy paper bags.
These bags were then used as trash bags that,
when full, were taken outside to metal trash cans.
(I can still hear the sound of the metal cans on trash day!)
Milk and soda came in returnable glass bottles that never made their way to the trash
because you could get money for returning them!
There was no plastic.
No Styrofoam.
Until there was.
And now the earth is drowning in plastic.
In those short 50 or so years,
drowning in plastic.
So...
Paper grocery bags?
Insist on it.
Cloth?
Even better.
Paper trash bags?
Why not?
Be creative -
small steps for mankind and womankind and children kind.
The Earth will survive human recklessness,
but humans won't.
Paper is a renewable resource, and with the return of the versatile Hemp plant, there is even more reason to have faith in paper.